Bao Taozi had no time for pleasantries. “Uncle Jianguo, let’s hurry and pack up your things and come with me, the longer we wait, the more dangerous it gets. My aunt will be so happy to see you.”
A little while longer, and the streets outside would be crawling with zombies.
Li Jianguo nodded quickly in agreement.
Whether or not it was actually safe wherever they were headed didn’t matter much, his little sister was there, and family needed to stick together.
“Quick, go pack your things! Don’t keep our little niece waiting!”
Li Jianguo instructed his wife and two children.
Both kids were a bit older than Bao Taozi, older brothers by comparison.
The elder was named Li Feng, the younger Li Guang.
Within just ten minutes or so, everyone had packed up, leaving behind anything too bulky to carry.
Bao Taozi led the way, cutting a path straight down to the ground floor.
Any zombie they encountered was dealt with in a single strike. Li Jianguo and the two brothers, watching this small girl fight with such ruthless efficiency, were utterly stunned.
They still hadn’t quite recovered even after climbing into the RV.
Bao Taozi had the men sit in the back, with Li Jianguo’s wife in the passenger seat, and stepped on the gas.
Along the way, she gave them a quick rundown of the apocalypse they were now facing and briefly introduced her hotel.
Learning that staying there would also require points, none of them had any complaints. First, it meant they’d be together with their sister’s family. Second, if the hotel really was as impressive as she said, then of course they should pay for it, and even if it wasn’t quite that impressive and this was just a place to stay temporarily, shouldn’t they still pay rent regardless?
The points system, though, had the two brothers, Li Feng and Li Guang, quite curious.
The moment they arrived at the hotel, the family couldn’t wait to get out of the car, and immediately saw the villa ahead wrapped in a shimmer of blue light, giving off a real sense of safety, this had to be the protective barrier Taozi had mentioned. A neon sign stood by the gate, the words 【Peach Hotel】 glowing brightly.
Everyone inside the villa heard the sound of the car and rushed out, guessing that Taozi had returned!
They’d all been on edge the whole time, terrified something might have happened to her.
The moment the aunt saw who had arrived, her eyes instantly welled up with tears, and she rushed toward them, overjoyed.
“Big brother! Sister-in-law! Little Feng, little Guang!”
“Sis!”
“Auntie!”
Everyone was too emotional to know what to say.
It was the aunt who first put it together, her niece sneaking off without telling anyone had been to go bring back her own big brother’s family!
She grabbed Taozi’s hand. “I don’t even know how to thank you! Good girl, thank you so much! Waah…”
“It’s fine, Auntie, go catch up with them, I’ll go get Uncle Jianguo and everyone a room ready.”
“Oh! Alright! Alright!”
Bao Taozi smiled and waved them off. Her grandparents hurried over first to check her over, and only relaxed once they confirmed she wasn’t hurt.
Grandmother swatted her on the back, annoyed. “How dare you! Running off like that, so reckless, do you know how dangerous it was out there! Your grandfather and I heard those screams outside and were too scared to even make a sound! And here you go, sneaking off on your own like that!”
“Sorry, sorry, Grandma~”
Bao Taozi hugged her grandmother’s arm and pouted playfully.
The old woman sighed, knowing full well the world had changed now and she couldn’t exactly keep the girl on a leash, she just hoped Taozi would stay safe.
Once she’d soothed her family, Bao Taozi hurried to the front desk and opened the panel.
【Points held: 1,830
Inventory: Luxury hotel building fragment x1, hotel single bed x1, lottery ticket x1.
Staff: 0
Hotel rooms: 101, 102, 103
Level: 1,830/100,000
Tasks: Task One, Set up the vending machine and sell 10 items (2/10 complete), Task Two, Rescue your aunt’s older brother Li Jianguo and his family of four (complete, ready to confirm).】
She tapped to submit the task.
Confirm!
【Congratulations, host, for completing the rescue mission for Li Jianguo’s family of four. Task reward received: Auto-renewal machine x1, 5,000 points, room 104 unlocked.】
Haha, now she could handle auto-renewals herself!
Bao Taozi quickly pulled the machine out and set it up next to the points converter. After examining it, she found all she had to do was swipe a card before the stay expired, and a screen would show how much time had been added.
So much more convenient!
That 5,000 points was a nice bonus too, she now had 6,830 points on hand.
Just then, the whole group came walking over, smiles on their faces.
“Taozi, I’m going to get them a room set up!” the aunt said, holding her sister-in-law’s hand happily.
“Will you be booking one room or two? Each room can hold up to four people, and it won’t let extra people in, you’d fit exactly in one room.”
That was straight out of the hotel’s operating rules.
“We’ll take two. My husband and I will share one, and since the boys aren’t so little anymore, it’s not really appropriate for them to share with us, they’ll take the other one!”
Perfect! The just-unlocked room 104 was rented out right away.
“Alright, Uncle Jianguo, give me just a moment to get things arranged.”
She opened the panel and clicked into the renovation icon.
Room 103 would go to the couple. Actually, back when she’d expanded room 102, she’d noticed that expanded rooms seemed to occupy some kind of pocket dimension, they didn’t take up any real-world space. No matter how large a room got on the inside, from the outside the building still looked like the same small rectangular structure.
She could have set them up with a whole two-bedroom suite for the family of four, but that would’ve driven the rent up a lot more.
She pulled up 103’s floor plan, applied the standard one-click renovation, then started placing furniture.
One double bed, one bathroom, a fridge and an air conditioner as well.
She didn’t dare add too much for now, more items meant higher rent.
Room 104 was even easier to set up, she pulled the single bed out of her inventory and bought a second one, perfect for the two brothers. She added a matching air conditioner and fridge, put a divider between the two beds, then added a bathroom. Perfect.
All told, this cost Bao Taozi 400 points, and she’d used up every usable item left in her inventory.
Once the rooms were ready, Bao Taozi called Uncle Qi over to teach everyone how to top up their points and pay for electricity.
Then, from the renovation menu, she bought a whiteboard, with more people around now, and even more likely to come later, writing up the hotel rules was only a matter of time.
Peach Hotel House Rules:
1. No fighting or brawling. The hotel will temporarily suppress everyone’s abilities inside, so please don’t be alarmed. (Violators will be tossed out by the hotel, going to the owner won’t help either.)
2. No more than four people per room. (Same penalty for violators, the hotel will toss you out, and going to the owner won’t help.)
3. Items supplied by the hotel may not be resold privately. Any item resold will automatically vanish, and the seller will be added to the blacklist.
4. The hotel may upgrade at any time, please don’t be alarmed.
5. If you need anything in your room, leave a request at the front desk, though it may raise your rent~
6. Please do not attempt to test the hotel’s abilities.
Once she’d finished writing, everyone gathered around to read it. Grandfather gave a thumbs up. “Now that’s the way to do it, future guests will know the house rules right away.”
With all the hotel rooms currently occupied by relatives and acquaintances, Bao Taozi turned to the system. “The rooms are all full now, and you’re still not releasing any tasks! No wonder you’re ranked dead last! You lazy bug!” She had to remind it every single time.
At that, Yuan Gungun rolled over and scrambled back up.
“You want me to keep giving you tasks nonstop? My last host hated it whenever I assigned tasks, and ended up hating me along with them, waah. So I figured giving you fewer would mean you wouldn’t hate me either.”
“How am I supposed to level up or earn points without tasks, so you’re not dead last anymore?”
“Okay! I’ll release them right now! I’m falling in love with you, dear host~”
【Task Two triggered: Promote the hotel. Progress 0/50.
Task reward: 1,000 points, unlock rooms 105 and 106, one restaurant space (placement is free).
Task time limit: 30 days】
【Task Three triggered: Rescue any one person and invite them to stay at the hotel.
Task reward: 2,000 points, air conditioner x2, fridge x2, luxury hotel building fragment x1, unlock hotel room 201.
Task time limit: 48 hours.】
Free appliances, how nice! Bao Taozi knew appliances were cheap for now only because her tenants were family, getting a discount, if outsiders moved in and she had to buy appliances at full price, she’d feel the pinch for sure!
“Gungun, can I just top up points myself?”
“Nope, no pay-to-win allowed!”
Well, that was a shame!